Georg Vihos

Georg Anthony Vihos, age 76, of Sheboygan and formerly of Hamtramck, Michigan, passed away peacefully on Thursday, September 26, 2013 after a long illness that wracked his body but never his spirit. He was born February 18, 1937 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of the late Anthony and Irene (Kieritsis) Vihos. After graduating from Northwestern High School, Georg served his country in the U.S. Navy as a cook on an aircraft carrier and received his honorable discharge in 1956. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on the GI Bill, and then set out to fulfill his calling as an artist and teacher of art. Vihos met his wife, Rosanne, while at the Art Institute and they married in 1959 and started a family. He taught at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit and The Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was much-loved by the many students he touched throughout his life. His art was deeply spiritual and uplifting, capturing the essence of things of the air: birds, feathers, butterflies, and flight itself. The joy he found in creating art was an inspiration to all, and his generous and supportive spirit lit the creative spark in others. He also loved to cook and share food with friends. His kitchen was always a hub of warmth and merriment in the many places he lived. His professional awards include the Louis Comfort Tiffany Prize (1968) and a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship (1969-70). Vihos traveled extensively and made art in many places: Italy, Greece, France, and throughout the United States. In the late 1970s, he moved to New York City where he maintained an art studio for several years. His work then took him to San Francisco and finally to Hamtramck. Because much of his work is on paper, Vihos envisioned, developed and patented an oxygen-free encasement process that he called SealTrue to preserve such works. During all the years he was making art, Vihos took on many projects with different youth organizations to help youth-at-risk find their creative voices. One of his favorite mottos was "You are an artist too!" His work was exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago and other galleries and museums nationwide. He produced mural-sized commissions for the Peat, Marwick, & Mitchell headquarters in Chicago, the W.B. Doner Company in Southfield, Michigan, and the corporate offices of trial lawyer, Jeffrey Fieger, also in Southfield, Michigan. Most recently, he created an 8-foot fork for the Meals on Wheels fundraiser, June-a-palooza, using collage imagery from his signature series, Conference of the Birds. Vihos was in the process of setting up a new studio in Sheboygan with the help of new friends at EBCO Venture Center and Sheboygan Visual Artists until his failing health began to take over his physical body. As always, he was eager to share his creative spirit and energy with a community that he said he found to be "peaceful, welcoming, and inspiring." Surviving George are his two daughters, Lisa Vihos of Sheboygan and Illia (Vihos) Mazurek of Chicago. Other survivors include two grandsons, Owen Vihos-Hoover and Kaleb Mazurek as well as a granddaughter, Ella Mazurek, a son-in-law, Stephan Mazurek and a former son-in-law, Michael Hoover; his sister, Helen Kapas of Canton, Michigan, two nephews, Peter (Colleen) and Anthony (Cheryl) Kapas and his former spouse, Rosanne Thompson of Sheboygan. He is preceded in death by his mother and father. A gathering and celebration of Georg's life will be held at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Sheboygan on Sunday, November 3 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. The visitation is at 2:00 and the service is at 3:00 with dessert and coffee to follow. The family is also planning a celebration of his life in the Detroit area in the near future. Memorial funds have been established to support Fresh Meals on Wheels of Sheboygan County or The Roeper School of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The family wishes to thank Julia and Jim Hollister, Paula and Ron Kletzien, Whitney and Stefano Viglietti, Tim Ebenreiter, Erico Ortiz, Erika Block, Frank Juarez, Ken Strmiska, Sabina Singh, Karl and Brenda Elder, J. Garland Schilcutt, and Lucretia Crawford for reaching out to Georg and helping him in his last months to maintain his identity as an artist. Thanks also to Meals on Wheels for nourishing him every day, to the staff at Morningside for providing rehab care when he needed it, and to all the compassionate doctors and nurses at Memorial Hospital who all did what they could to help him in the last months, weeks, and days of his life.

Service of Remembrance

2013-11-03
2:00
4:00

First Congregational Church of Christ

Sheboygan
WI